When Christianity as a religion entered Europe, it met a myriad of gods worshipped by the people which coloured their culture and belief systems. They were passionate about their gods and they had several festivals to celebrate and re-ignite their passion and devotion to these gods.
The Church, which was the Catholic, was able to penetrate the people and establish Christianity as another religion among the people; however, Christianity was not established as a way of life among the people. Even though, they gave their lives to Christ, they still think and act as people who worshipped idols.
As a result of this, the people still kept on participating in the festivals and rites of the gods despite pledging their allegiance to Jesus. It became a fierce battle that the church had to come up with an idea to keep them busy during the days of the festivals of the idols, so the church placed her own festivals and celebrations either a day before or on the same day of a pagan festival. The dates of festivals like “Remembrance of St. Valentine” and “Christmas” were influenced by this need. December 25, which is a day for celebrating a pagan god was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This development promoted the existence of the Christians in the community and helped to tame the growth of idolatry.
The people tried bringing the deeds of their pagan gods into Church Festivals since it was the same day, but the church was able to curb that inkling and established a culture for Christmas, however, the church was not successful on the Remembrance of St. Valentine as the culture of the festival of the pagan god was brought into it and corrupted the day.
Santa Claus, on the other end is the nickname of an Asian monk who distributed gifts to children on the eve of Christmas day. He was not the only one who was involved in that business as an English man nicknamed ‘Father Christmas’ and a Dutch man were also doing the same in their country, but the Catholic Church recognised only Santa Claus and honoured him as a Saint. It was Santa Claus who rode the chariot that is commonly used today as the chariot bringing Santa Claus from Rome.
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